(view in My Videos)
In just the past few years, the threat landscape has significantly changed – and traditional antivirus technologies can’t keep up. Attackers generate literally tens of thousands of new malware variants every day, often distributing each variant to just a handful of users. That means that each time a new victim visits an attacker’s web site, a slightly different piece of malware is served up. How can a security vendor ever hope to discover each of these thousands of variants?
We call this problem “server side polymorphism” and we’ve seen it grow over several years. Yo...

As I write this--about 15 minutes before Apple's "Newest Creation" event is set to begin--I feel, if the hype is to be believed, that I am writing this on a piece of papyrus, musing on the concept of the printing press. I think it is fair to say that this morning's presentation is the most anticipated technology announcment in Apple's history, if not of all time…and we are not even sure if Apple's actually going to announce it!
"It," of course, refers to Apple's entry into the tablet market, the next wave of computing, which does away with the standard keyboard/mouse/screen computer and ...

Got an Idea? Tell us!
Have you ever used a product and thought “if only it had this feature…” or “if I could just do that easier” wishing you could spend a few minutes with the developers to hear you out? Well, today we’re excited to introduce a new section of the Norton Community called Norton Ideas which will allow you to do just that. Norton Ideas is a site that will allow you to submit your product feature suggestions directly to the Norton product development team. The Norton product team is here to listen to your suggestions, discuss them amongst the community and put the best id...

This year we have some innovative changes that build upon the successful, effective, and efficient SONAR 2 behavioral security engine. For those who are not familiar with SONAR technology, here is a link to an article that describes it. With SONAR 2, we have a proven track record of being able to convict malware and secure Norton users from malware designed to evade most other security features. In the last nine months alone we prevented upward of 4.2 million infections out of about 140 million incidents that we analyzed for Norton users. Most of these incidents were never-before-seen malw...

The new Norton AntiVirus 2011 and Norton Internet Security 2011 beta products include several new and improved features which I'm going to detail here.
Security Features
Reputation Scan
In our 2009 products, we introduced Norton Insight which dramatically improved performance by not scanning known good files.
In 2010 products, we went one step further by using reputation data to mark files as good, bad or unknown.
With 2011, we are enhancing this even more by providing fine-grained reputation information about files and by allowing users to perform a Reputation Scan of their files. You...

A few years ago we threw down the gauntlet, challenging the idea that performance must be traded away in favor of security. To accomplish our mission, we changed ourselves and in the process, changed the entire conversation, shifting the focus to include not only effectiveness and accuracy but minimum performance impact felt by the customer. But we’re an industry leader, so rehashing the previous cutting-edge methods won’t do. In 2011, we’ve picked up our own challenge and turned in a new direction, pushing ourselves to go even farther for the betterment of our customers.
In order to do...

AMTSO (the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization) is a coalition of security professionals, including many antivirus product vendors, product testing organizations and publishers, and some interested individuals. Given the highly technical nature of its activities, it is inevitable that the organization owes some of its authority to the expertise of the security specialists within its ranks, but that doesn’t make it a vendor lobby group. As Kurt Wismer (not himself a member) points out here (http://anti-virus-rants.blogspot.com/2010/06/nss-labs-vs-amtso.html) “many of them are employ...

Symantec Maximum Repair (SMR) is a brand new security engine that drives our new Norton Power Eraser recovery tool. It combines aggressive heuristics and advanced removal capabilities to combat the newest and toughest threats. I thought I would share with you some of the background on why we developed this new engine.
Why the need?
The threat landscape has radically changed over the last few years and that has driven the need for new approaches to protection. Most notable are the following trends:
A new micro distribution model for malicious threats. A couple of years ago, the norm wa...

Norton Browser Protection
One of the lesser known capabilities in our Norton protection products is a feature that protects you from attack when you surf the web. We call this feature Norton Browser Protection and I thought I’d spend a few minutes sharing with you what it does and why we believe it has become a critical part of protecting you from attack as you surf the web.
What’s the problem that Browser Protection addresses?
Well think about how much time you spend surfing the web every day. I bet it’s a lot more that it was five years ago. As more and more of our activities ...

We are very excited to release Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus 2011. After undergoing months of Beta testing, getting feedback from our enthusiastic Norton community and incorporating much of that feedback, we are finally releasing what we think are our best products to date.
While this post is somewhat similar to the 2011 Beta post, it has some important additions that warrant an update.
2011 Security Features
Reputation Scan
In our 2009 products, we introduced Norton Insight which dramatically improved performance by not scanning known good files.
In 2010 products, we w...

Today we’re sharing the exciting update that we’re taking Norton DNS for PC users out of beta. As you may recall, Norton DNS was launched in May as part of our Norton Everywhere announcement, which aims to take our consumer business beyond the PC. Since that launch, Norton DNS has gained more than 250,000 beta users from 112 different countries. These users have enjoyed a safer internet experience from the more than 1.4 million malware block pages per month that have been displayed when users encountered harmful websites.
Many people don’t know that they can change their DNS settings or w...

Bridging the Gap
Norton Power Eraser is the latest Norton Recovery tool. It is being released at the same time as Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus 2011. The tool is aimed at detection and clean-up of “0-day” threats (0-day threats are those that take advantage of a newly discovered hole in a program or operating system before the developers have made a fix available – or before they are even aware that a hole exists.)
There is special focus on ”Fake AV” (aka ”Rogueware” or ”Crimeware”). Fake AV is a rogue piece of software that pretends to be security software and tempts the ...

We’re excited to share with you that we have reached another major milestone with Norton DNS. As mentioned in a recent press release update on our Norton Everywhere initiative, we’ve just opened BETA testing of our new Web Content Filtering service within Norton DNS!
This new functionality means that we have extended Norton DNS protection beyond malicious and phishing sites to provide content filtering capability for over 55 million sites, in more than 23 different languages. Users of this new Norton DNS 1.5 beta with Web Content Filtering (BETA) service will be able to create their ow...

We at Norton are very excited to
share the Beta release for Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus 2012
products with you. Below are descriptions of the new features and great
enhancements provided with this release.
Protection
2012 introduces several new technologies to combat emerging threats.
Fake AV is one of the most visible and wide-spread threats that Internet users face today. Fake AV pretends to be security software and tempts the user to pay for it. Even worse, it can install additional malware on the system and claim the system is clean. New for 2012, we’ve included...

Hi, I’m Joe Keehnast, product manager for Norton Anti-Theft, a new Beta service from Norton. Norton Anti-Theft is a new service that gives you a way to track the devices you have, protect the data they house, and get them back in the event that they are ever lost or stolen. Protecting users from the threat of physical device loss and theft is somewhat of a new area for us and we believe this new service is a great addition to our Norton Everywhere vision of protecting you and your data on any device.
So what can Norton Anti-Theft do for you?
Let’s say you have lost a computer or it has...

Hi!
I'm Mike Romo and I am the product manager for Norton AntiVirus 12 for Mac and Norton Internet Security 5 for Mac. I am really excited to get this opportunity to welcome you to our beta program and want to be the first to thank you for your interest in our latest products.
Long time Norton users might have noticed that it has been a long time since we have been able to deliver Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security for Mac at the same time. There are a few reasons for this:
- First, these products are specifically designed for MacOS X 10.7, "Lion". We have re-engineered the...

One of the great new features we’re adding to the Norton 2012 product line is the ability to manage your installed Norton products from one central website. Have you ever received a call from your remote family member that their Norton product is out of date or their Norton subscription needs a renewal? Before the management feature, you’d have to physically be present to address these issues. Now, once you have installed Norton Management on a device, you can handle these things (and more) from the Management website! The site gives an overview of all your managed machines and you can...

When Steve Jobs died this week, I found out via my Twitter feed. I was working on my Mac and putting together a presentation discussing our plans to continue innovating on the Apple platforms - I had just dropped in a graphic of Apple's new iPhone 4S.
When I read the news, I gasped. I sat for a second and, almost by reflex, just typed "Steve Jobs is dead," sharing the news with my online community. Within seconds, my Twitter feed was an avalanche of disbelief, and for hours, people from around the world shared their grief, the vast majority of them sharing their words on Apple devices.
I...

It has always been in the interest of malware authors to hide their malware on an infected machine. They don’t want to make it easy for security vendors to find and remove their files. Rootkits are one of the most sophisticated methods malware authors use to stay undiscovered.
A rootkit is a tool that allows an attacker to hide a threat on a computer. Rootkits almost never work alone. Instead, an attacker will deliver both a malicious program (e.g., spyware) and an accompanying rootkit when they infect a new computer. The job of the rootkit is to hide telltale signs of both itself and...

If you’ve been keeping up with Norton products, you probably already know that Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2012 included new capabilities that gave you the option to store your Identity Safe Vault (passwords, credit card numbers, and other data) in the Norton cloud and share it between all your computers with Norton Internet Security 2012. Up until now, however, your Vault could only be accessed from a computer with Norton Internet Security 2012 installed.
Today we’re launching identitysafe.norton.com, a web portal which allows you to access your Identity Safe Vault from any web browse...

We are excited to announce the Beta launch of Norton Identity Safe Standalone. Norton Identity Safe takes away the pain of having to remember multiple passwords and securely stores important information such as credit cards numbers, addresses, and phone numbers. Please visit https://identitysafe-beta.norton.com/ to try the Beta.
Overview
Passwords have become a way of life for every computer user. They are one of the most popular methods of user authentication on the Internet. They are used to check emails, access bank accounts, watch movies, play games, and a lot more.
The world would be...

If you've recently purchased one of the 2009 Norton products, you may have noticed that this year, it came with something new - the Norton Recovery Tool.
To avoid confusion between the Norton Removal Tool (NRT) and the Norton Recovery Tool, I will instead refer to the solution as the Norton Recovery Disc (NRD).
For many of our users, this tool will never play a part in their security software experience, but for those who need it, it can be a life saver.
So what is the Norton Recovery Disc, and when would you ever need to use it?
The NRD is a bootable CD that can run scans and remove threa...

Leading up to Microsoft’s launch of the new Windows 8 operating system, there has been a lot of media chatter about what the new operating system means for security. Specifically, folks want to know whether users will be more secure on this new platform. Let’s examine more closely a few of the claims we’re hearing.
In response to an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape, Windows 8, like its predecessors (Windows 7, Vista, XP, and on) raises the bar in terms of new defenses to help defend against increasingly more cunning and devious malware variants. But does this mean that systems ...

Everyone here at Norton is extremely excited about this new release of the Norton security products! This is the first time we are launching all three products at once: Norton AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security, and Norton 360. In this two-part blog post, I plan on going through some of the new features and improvements we have made. The first part will cover some of the things we’ve done on the protection side, while the second part will cover the performance and experience side of things. Hopefully this will explain how some of these technologies will make your computing life safer and ...

Now that the latest version of Norton Internet Security and Norton 360 are released, you may have noticed some improvements to the Norton Toolbar - the Share button and the Online Vault. Below is an explanation of the changes, and why we wanted them in the product.
Why Online Vaults?
The Online Vault is Convenient.
- It provides access to your most sensitive data from any iOS, Android, PC, or Mac device and from *any* device with a web browser.
- It automatically synchronizes data across devices.
The Online Vault is Secure.
- Norton uses 256bit AES encryption to encrypt the data. Thi...

In our 2013 products, many changes/enhancements were added to the Norton IdentitySafe Toolbar. They are summarized as:
Feature
New/Existing/Change
Remarks
Targeted Products
Changes with Local Vault Feature
New
Local Vault feature is removed for our new users of 2013 product, users migrating from 2012 or older versions will still have local vault
NIS, N360
Home Page(button on toolbar)
New
Clicking on this button will enable the users to access the online vault content in single view
NIS, N360
Scam Insight Protection
New
Scam Insight is a new feature wh...

In this four-part blog series, I have briefly reviewed some of the myths we’ve heard about Windows 8 security improvements and point out where deficiencies lie. We believe security should still very much be a concern for anyone running the new Windows 8 OS. Visit this earlier post to learn more about the series.
In today's post, I'll address Myth #4: SmartScreen will keep users out of trouble.
First introduced as a security add-on feature for Internet Explorer v8.0, the SmartScreen Filter (SSF) checks the sites a user visits and the files they download and compares them against lists of ...

In this four-part blog series, I briefly review some of the myths we’ve heard about Windows 8 security improvements and point out where deficiencies lie. We believe security should still very much be a concern for anyone running the new Windows 8 OS.
Visit this earlier post to learn more about the series.
Myth #3: Changes to the Windows 8 boot sequence make it secure.
In previous releases of Windows, the boot sequence has been an area ripe for sophisticated attacks against the operating system. During the early phases of loading the Windows OS, there were a number of holes that could b...

In part two of this four-part blog series, I'll continue to review some of the myths we’ve heard about Windows 8 security improvements and point out where deficiencies lie. We believe security should still very much be a concern for anyone running the new Windows 8 OS.
Visit this earlier post to learn more about the series.
Myth #2: Windows 8 is safer because all apps are sandboxed from the rest of the system.
As you likely know if you’ve been following the news around Windows 8, it will introduce a new style of application called the Windows Store app. These apps leverage a new set of...

By Alejandro Borgia, senior director, product management, Symantec Corporation
For customers looking for the best security technology for their needs, it’s critical to have access to reliable and meaningful information so they can make smart decisions to stay protected in today’s complex threat landscape. As an industry, we face a challenge in that testing security products is a highly technical and time-consuming process, and there are shortcomings in the approach of some tests that result in data that is misleading at best.
Last week, PC Magazine published an article titled “Microso...

By Gerry Egan, senior director, product management, Symantec Corp.
Today, we are excited to announce the release of the latest versions of our award-winning Norton core security products, which keep consumers safe from evolving threats in their daily online lives. The latest versions improve on the industry’s leading protection and performance, and are designed for compatibility with the new features of Windows 8.1.
According to Symantec research, Web attacks increased 30 percent in 2012, driven by the easy availability of malware toolkits and the high frequency of unpatched vulnerabi...

Are you ready to tech the halls? Mobile tech like smartphones and tablets top many gift lists and wishlists this year. In fact, 74% of U.S. holiday shoppers intend to give consumer electronics as presents (source: CEA).
However while you're anticipating santa's gifts by your chimney, the holidays provide scammers with an opportune time to sweep up valuable personal data as well as lost or stolen devices. That's why Norton has captured these security tips to protect your presents.
Don't fa-la-la-la-fall for cybercriminals' tricks. Take these first steps to protect your privacy and secur...

The season for giving is here, a time for spreading cheer and presents to those near and dear. Cyber Monday has become a popular way to shop for holiday deals. With mobile devices being the choice gift of the season and a convenient way to shop too. In fact, 58 percent of U.S. consumers used smartphones and 42 percent used tablets to shop during Cyber Monday 2012 according to IBM.
Though, online shopping from unsecured devices poses the risk of cybergrinches – looking to snatch your personal information and spread scams for financial gain. Don’t let cybercriminals steal your holiday chee...

Mobile technologies sure-to-trend in 2014 include "smart" connected devices and wearable gadgets. With 2.88 billion people reached by the #CES2014 hashtag, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, this new tech is growing in popularity in no time. Watch the best-of from Norton at CES.
Did you miss the Norton Truck interactive mobile privacy experience at CES? You can still try Norton Mobile Security for free, here: https://mobilesecurity.norton.com/
Read on for more quick tips to protect your mobile privacy:
Protect your private info: Did you know? 1-in-4 smartphone user...

Welcome to the new year! Now that the holidays are a wrap if you're like many, you may have received the gift of mobile this year. In fact, 74% of U.S. consumers intended to give consumer electronics as presents (CEA). But while new mobile trends are in fashion for 2014, mobile cybercrime threats are trending also. More than 1/3 of smartphone users have experienced mobile cybercrime (2013 Norton Report). That means, resolution number one on your list should be to security protect your shiny, new mobile devices and tablets.
Mobile Malware: How-to Protect Your Smartphone and Tablet
...

Because you should be spending your time enjoying the festivities, here are a few security tips for Lunar New Year.
Wishing you a fun, safe celebration and year ahead from Norton! Will you capture irreplaceable memories this Lunar New Year? Try Norton Zone for free, a safer and easier way to share files with family and friends.

There’s a reason why Facebook is celebrating it's 10th birthday today!
Social networking sites are great for keeping in touch with friends and family, for telling people what you’re up to, and for finding out what’s happening in your part of the world. Though this does come with risks. Each time you post, “like”, share a photo or check-in somewhere, you’re providing a little more information about yourself. You’re discarding a little more of your privacy… and arguably, you’re leaving yourself at risk of identity theft.
To help you on your way, here are our top 5 tips to help you enjoy y...

As a tourist in a foreign city, especially a chilly one hosting hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world this weekend, it’s probably wise for you to learn a few key phrases to protect yourself, like:
Спасите! (Spasite!) “Help!” Пожар! (Požar!) “Fire!” Стой! (Stoj!) “Stop!”
…but, what if you need to protect your mobile device or laptop? These phrases are pretty ineffective against cyber crimes. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team reports that possible targeted attacks could appear in the form of spam, phishing scams, fake websites, or drive-by download campaigns, an...

GPS devices have made driving so much simpler in recent years, and it’s hard to find a driver today who does not use one for long journeys. But what are the downsides to being constantly connected when driving? While you’re getting vital information to help you reach your destination, what vital information of yours is flowing the other way?
One big car maker was recently forced to deny that it collects and shares personal data on drivers and their habits through their GPS devices, but we’ve seen time and time again that all that gatherable information can prove too tempting for a company...

Social media accounts are powerful tools in the wrong hands. We’ve recently seen hackers take over the Twitter accounts of media outlets and large corporations, using them for anything from basic spam to drawing attention to global issues. Your own accounts might seem too small to tempt scammers, but even with just a few followers your information is a valuable commodity. Read on for tips to stay safe on social networks.
Use unique passwords for each social network
It’s a pain, but it is also absolutely essential that you don’t use the same password for Twitter as you do for, say, Facebo...

The clock is ticking down on Windows XP. Microsoft will end technical assistance for the 12-year-old operating system on April 8 and effectively stop delivering automatic updates and security patches to Windows XP users. Although many consumers, small businesses and even large enterprises have already transitioned to newer and more secure systems, an estimated 30 million desktop operating systems still run on Windows XP today and could be left vulnerable after April 8.
At Symantec, we firmly believe running up-to-date security products is a critical step in protecting your personal infor...

The world of business has to move with the times, and right now that means it makes a lot of sense to allow staff to use whatever devices they have for work. BYOD – bring your own device – is here to stay, and if implemented properly can be a real boon to the productivity and happiness of your employees. They get to use a device they’re comfortable with, and you get to slash your hardware deployment costs.
But BYOD brings with it new risks to the security of sensitive company data, with employees taking their main work systems out of the office with them at the end of the day. Rather than ...

The rise of the smartphone has brought countless technological benefits that make our daily lives easier in so many ways, and one of the biggest has been the freedom of mobile banking. Gone are the days of waiting in a busy branch on a Saturday afternoon to transfer money into your savings account, or calling an automated number to check your balance.
But having your bank accounts within such close reach does bring its dangers, and it shouldn’t simply be assumed that logging in and doing your banking can now be done at any time and in any place. Here are five quick tips to keeping your mon...

After April 8, Microsoft will no longer release updates designed to fix bugs that cybercriminals use to gain access to the operating system (OS). Any newly discovered vulnerabilities in the operating system will effectively become an open invitation to an attacker to gain control of a computer running Windows XP. Symantec strongly recommends that Windows XP customers upgrade to a current OS as soon as possible, but will continue to support Windows XP SP3 systems for the foreseeable future.
SavvyMediaGal recently posted a Norton Protection Blog entry titled, “How will the end of Microsoft ...

Unlike April Fools, which only happens once a year, scammers make a living off of fooling users 365 days a year. Here are a number of tricks that scammers use.
Phishing Scams: Whether it’s pretending to be your financial institution or a tweet from someone you know, asking, “Is this photo of you?”, phishing scams are after your login credentials to sites that are important to you. Recently, users of Google Drive and Google Docs were targeted in a sophisticated phishing scam. Phishing remains one of the most common scams used because they work, and as these scams become more innovative, th...

Malware apps
With copycat apps growing on official app stores, it’s harder than ever to know whether an app you’re downloading is genuine. Outside of the big, trusted names, how do you know if an unknown developer with few reviews is really making useful apps, or simply building vehicles for getting malware onto your smartphone? To add an extra layer of reassurance when browsing for new apps, download Norton Mobile Security and use it to scan new apps before you run them – you might be surprised what you find out.
Social media spam
If you’re on Twitter you’ll know how annoying it is to b...

What is Heartbleed? Symantec is continuing to track this OpenSSL bug discovered recently and its implications for consumers. Symantec has created a site devoted to Heartbleed for further information. Watch to learn more:
"Heartbleed" a name that security researchers have given to a serious bug found in a very common piece of software used by many websites. The software in question is called OpenSSL and is used to encrypt the information that you send to and from websites, such as your login name and password or other sensitive information. You can usually recognize when websites encrypt...

They’re both selling by the millions, with no sign of slowing down, but there are big differences between the iOS and Android mobile platforms – not least in the array of security threats they face, and the ways in which they attempt to mitigate them. You’re never totally secure when using a mobile device on either platform, but should the security conscious be choosing one over the other?
The Threat Level
If we’re talking purely about the level of threat that exists on the two platforms, it would seem iPhone and iPad users have the better side of the deal. Studies have found that a fa...

By Satnam Narang, Symantec Security Response expert.
No matter where you went this week, you likely heard about something called Heartbleed. If you happened to be living under a rock (some might say you were better off there), you may not have heard that there was a major vulnerability discovered in OpenSSL, the open source implementation of the protocols used to secure communication over the Internet. The reason it received a lot of attention is because a half a million trusted websites were vulnerable at the time this news first came to light. Does this mean the Internet is broken or is...

Norton users* can breathe more easily knowing that they are backed by Norton by Symantec’s gold standard of security in light of a security advisory about a new zero-day bug affecting Microsoft Internet Explorer. Other vendors are using the name “Operation Clandestine Fox” to identify targeted attacks using this bug in the wild. Users of all versions of Internet Explorer are vulnerable, but, so far, this bug is not being used in widespread attacks.
Microsoft will be issuing a patch for supported operating systems, but Windows XP users will need to find another way to stay secure, as ...